Wearing a No. 24 Utah hockey jersey, country artist Shaboozey performed a pregame concert outside Delta Center as people grabbed food from food trucks and participated in hockey activities such as Hardest Shot and Accuracy Shooting. Three fighter jets banked left over the mountains, flew over the Utah State Capitol and flew over the arena.

The doors opened and the stands filled up. Markkanen wasn’t the only member of the Jazz to show up. The Utah hockey and basketball teams have a close bond, playing for the same owners in the same arena in the same season.

“We want it to be kind of a weird, blended family,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “We’re going to support them, they’re going to support us, but we have a little family competition. It will be a race to the rafters to see who can hang a banner there first.”

The official attendance was 11,131, but that only counted unobstructed seating in an arena that will need more renovations for hockey in the next two to three years. The thousands of blocked seats were also full, and this was a hockey crowd.

The fans cheered when they should cheer and whooped when they should cheer. Often they sang, “Let’s go, Utah!” Sometimes they simply sang, “Utah!” They also sang ‘Spicy Tuna’, the nickname of striker Liam O’Brien.

They roared after forward Dylan Guenther scored the first goal in Utah Hockey Club history at 4:56 of the first period.

“That building was special,” Guenther said. “That was a lot of fun, a lot of fun to play for that audience. …If the building stays like this all year round, that will be a great advantage for us.”